Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper examines the course of policy development leading to the enactment and abrupt repeal of California’s Health Insurance Act of 2003, the most significant state action to address the problems of the uninsured since the early 1990s. It outlines the main features of the legislation, which authorized new “pay or play” employer mandates that were projected to expand health insurance to more than one million people. It then explains the key problems that confronted policy makers, the major political developments that facilitated reform, and the critical policy choices that influenced the scope and potential impact of the new law. Finally, it identifies the political and legal obstacles that stood in the way of policy implementation, focusing in particular on the statewide referendum that repealed the law before any of the provisions took effect.

Supporting Publications:
Supporting Document

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Research suggests if a homicide is not solved within the first forty-eight hours of the investigative process, the chance of solving the case decreases dramatically. In recent years there has been a reduction in homicide clearance rates (cleared by arrest) across the United States; in 1965, 91% of homicide cases were solved compared to 62% in 2005. The goal of this study is to determine how various homicide case variables influence the solvability of homicides within the first forty-eight hours of an investigation. Specifically, the authors attempt to determine what solvability factors lead to a rapid clearance thus increasing investigators’ chance of solving a homicide by fifty percent. The data set utilized in this study is from the Homicide Investigation and Tracking System (HITS) database in Washington State and solved murder cases between 1981 and 1986 are examined. Five individual models are analyzed: (1) police procedure; (2) offender; (3) victim; (4) incident and (5) combined, using regression analyses, to determine what case variables aided detectives in rapidly solving homicides. Policy implications are examined.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The objective of this paper is to explore children’s schooling and child labor issues and causes in the country in transition. The main source of data for this analysis is two rounds of the Viet Nam Living Standards Survey (VLSS) 1992-1993 and 1997-1998.
To understand causes and effects of child labor in Vietnam, I address the issues at household and community settings. I will investigate the roles of children in the family, interaction between child labor and schooling status and decision to enroll in school, and how family factors contribute to schooling and child work net of children’s ability. I also integrate macro factors, such as village living standard, access to credits and savings facilities, access to school, and school quality, to investigate determinants of child labor, using logit and MNLM regressions.
Family is considered as the primary unit that allocates the time and activities of its members, including children. I expect that the greater family need for resources, the more likely children work. I hypothesize that reduction in percentage of households below the poverty line in Vietnam would reduce proportion of child labor. For children who are working, family resources are determinants of children’s employment, but local labor market condition is the most important factor of types of employment. I shall conclude that the socioeconomic development and poverty reduction programs implemented by the Vietnamese government have yielded a positive impact on eradicating child labor.

Publication Type: Speed Presentation
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Evaluations of marine ecosystems should be judged on their ability to capture key ecological processes, record shifts in important baselines or norms, and address management objectives. Simple analytical approaches are appropriate when many groups, including students, undertake assessments with standardized protocols like those developed by the AGRRA Project for Caribbean-area coral reefs (see www.agrra.org for methods and datasets).
Some AGRRA indicators alternate between norms that are region-wide during routine conditions and abnormal values associated with acute perturbations; others integrate the cumulative effects of longer-term processes and vary continuously over wide ranges. With proper attention to temporal variation, key components of reef structure (stony corals) and function (large algae, herbivores and predators) can be analyzed at spatial scales that vary from individual reefs or reef tracts to the entire tropical western Atlantic.
Report cards that summarize habitat- or ecosystem-level indicators as grades for easy interpretation by the general public are gaining in popularity. Condition ranks are based on known historical values, if any, plus consultations with local and regional experts. The 2008 “Eco-health Report Card for the Mesoamerican Reef,” which incorporates ecoregional-scale AGRRA data collected in 2006, inspired our own approach with the region-wide dataset. Individual indicators are combined in various ways to produce indices of reef condition that can be compared at any given spatial scale of interest. Ecological report cards are a useful tool with which to garner support for marine conservation, and help determine or modify management strategies.